Child&#39;s garment with attached diaper tab



. 9, 1952 D. E. SHEA CHILDS GARMENT WITH ATTACHED DIAPER TAB Filed Feb.17, 195o m E a J `l l Patented Dec. 9, 1,952

CHILDS GARMENT WITH lATTACHED f DIAPER TAB Dennis E. Shea, Newtonville,Mass.,4 assigner to The Vanta Company, Inc., Waltham, Mass., acorporation of Rhode Islandl Y Application February 17,195o',vseria11\i0.144,739

2 Claims. (C1. 2-111) e 1 j" This invention Vpertains to garments moreespeciallyto under garments (whether with or without sleeves) forinfants and small children. The invention is here illustrated, forconvenience, as embodied in a garment of the general type of thatdisclosed in the patent to LeConey No. 2,068,186 issued January 19,1937,but it is to be understood that` the invention is applicable to othertypes of under garment, for example to double-breasted tie-shirts, asdisclosed inA the patent to Fanta 1,000,390, August 15, 1911, or otherunder garments of customary kinds. 'Ihe present invention is moreespecially concerned with the provision of an under garment comprisingmeans for the convenient attachment of a attaching tabs.

y Ithas heretofore been proposed to providev infantsshirt withreinforced or thickened areas for `the reception of the diaper-attachingpins but'it is somewhat diihcult vto pass the pin throughsuch athickened area, and the stresses to which the pin is subjected duringuse tend to tear or otherwise form holes in the material of the lgarmentproper. It has also been proposed 'tov provide the garment with tabssecured at their upper ends. to the garment,.'either at its'v inside oroutside, and having their lower portions freely depending and designedto receive the diaper-attaching pin. 'The provision of such tabs avoidsthe necessity of passing the 4pin through the garment proper lor throughunduly thick material, but such tabs have heretofore beencustomarilymade of inextensible material',

for instance woven textile tape, with the result that the drag of thediaper imposes an unduly heavystrain on the back muscles of vthe childand also tends tov tear the garment proper a the point of attachment ofthe tape.

garment having diaper-attaching tabs which are elastically yieldable. Afurther object is to provide a'childs under garment havingdiaperattaching tabs, comprising longitudinally l extensible rubberelastic threads, so secured to the material of lthevgarment proper as'todistribute the stress at the-point of attachment and therediaper, inparticular t'o a garment having diaper f ing drawings wherein 2 by "toA'ao/oidtearing the garment. Other and further objectstand advantages ofthe invention will be pointed out in the following more detaileddescription and by reference to the accompany- Fig'. 1 is a frontelevation of an infants under garment embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the garment 'of Fig. 3 is a fragmentaryside elevation to larger scale showing the lower portion of a garmentembodying the present invention; f

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but showing the garment as it appearsat its inner side;

Fig. 5V is a fragmentary diagrammatic section, substantially on the line5--5 ofFig. 4 butto greatly exaggerated scale; e i

Fig'.` 6 is an elevation of an attaching tab in accordance with Aoneembodiment of the invention, the tabbeing vshown before its connectionFig. 9is a view similar to Fig. 8 but illustratn ing anothef'kindcifzrnaneri'al;

Fig. 1`0'i'sa fragmentary -front elevation diag-rammaticallyillustrating a further modified form of tab,and t l Fig.'11 isf a view;similar to Fig. 3but illustrating an attaching seam of a modied and`preferred construction. f

f Referring to the drawings',lparticularly to Figs. 1 and-2, an infantsunder shirt is illustrated which in general is of the construction ofthat '01 shown in theLeConeypatent above referred to.

'lf'hus the body portion of the garment comprises the front portion Iand the rear portion l usually integral parts of a tube of knittedmaterial, although the front and back portions may vbe separate 4'partsunited lby theside seams not shown. The garment has armscyes which, as

here illustrated, receive the sleeves` 2 and 3., However, the ,garmentmay be sleeveless if. de-l y sired. The body portion is provided with' aneck;

opening defined by the curved'jedge ,4 Vatjthe upper part of the rearportion Ia and by the curvedY edge 5 at the upper part of the frontportion l, these edges being bound or otherwise finished in lcustomarymanner. .The front por.-

tion I has generally triangular "extensions or' flaps 6 and 1 (Fig. 2)which extend up over the shoulder and down onto the back IB, overlappingsimilar extensions 6 and 1* oi' the rear portion I* which extend overthe shoulders and down beneath the extensions 6 and 'I respectively. Thelateral edges of these extensions or tabs are secured by stitching tothe edges of the armscye openings.

In accordance with the present invention, the garment is provided with aplurality of diaperattaching tabs, two such tabs 8 here beingillustrated, one of these tabs being arranged at each side of thegarment. Each of these tabs, as illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 6, isvertically elongate, preferably having curved upper and lower ends 9 andI0 respectively to give a finished appearance, and having its edgesiinished in any suitable manner, for example by overseaming as shown atI I. As herein illustrated these tabs are arranged at the inside of thegarment, the upper end of each tab being spaced below ythe lower pointof the corresponding armscyevr vand the tabs being of such length thattheir lower ends I are just above the lower edge E of the body portionof the garment. The exact length of the tab is not material but it ispreferred that the tab be concealed within the garment and obviously thetab should be suiciently long to perform its intended function and tomake the insertion of the diaper-attaching pin as easy as possible. Asmay be observed by inspection of Figs. 1 and 2, the tabs are attached tothe body portion of the garment at locations directly belowtherespective armscyes, with the upper ends of the tabs spaced from thelowest point of the corresponding armscye, a distance which does notsubstantially exceed one-third the distance between the lower partY ofsaid armscye and the lower edge of the body portion of the garment.Moreover, the tabs are symmetrical with respect to the armscyes so thatwhen the garment is folded fiat, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, each foldline substantially bisects the corresponding tab, or in other words, thelongitudinal center line of each tab substantially bisects thecorresponding armscye, whereby the pull of the 4diaper is distributedequally to the front and rear of the shoulder portion of the garment andis exerted close to the seam which unites the sleeve to the garment andwhich thus acts to transmit the pull to the shoulder.

As here illustrated, each tab is connected to the body portion of thegarment by a sewed seam l2, each of these seams as here illustrated,being circular, the upper portion of each seam following and beingconcentric with the curved upper end of the tab. However, a seam whichdefines an enclosed area of different shape, for instance a Square, maybe used instead of the circular seam with generally similar results. Bythe employment of a seam of this general type, the stress transmittedfrom the tab to the body portion is very well vdistributed so that thepossibility ofy tearing of the material of the garment proper by theload imposed by the tab is minimized.

As illustrated in Fig. 5, the upper end portion 8a of the tab isattached to the garment, leaving the major portion of the tab, below theseam I2, free and. depending so that its lower Apart 8 is readily;separable from the body portion of the garment to facilitate theintroduction of the pin. w In accordance with the present invention, thetab 8 is of such material or construction as to permit it to elongate inresponse to applied stresses. Preferably it should be of elasticcharacter so that after being elongated it tends to resume its initiallength. As illustrated in Fig. l0, the tab 8 consists of a length ofordinary knitted fabric, either rib or plain, having the wales Wextending transversely, the margins of the tab being overseamed at Il,or otherwise nished to prevent ravelling, but without substantiallimitation of stretchability. Knitted fabric with the wales runningtransversely in this manner is capable of greater vertical elongationthan when the wales of the knitted material run vertically. A tab madeof knitted material, will increase in length in response to stressesimposed by the diaper, thus avoiding undue strain upon the muscles ofthe childs back, at the same time relieving the body portion of thegarment of undue stress.

While ordinary rib-knitted fabric such as just suggested is useful, itis preferable, as above suggested, to use a material which has therecovery characteristics of rubber elastic. Thus, as illustrated in Fig.'7 the material of the tab 8 may be a woven or broaded tape comprisinglongitudinal strands R of rubber or rubber-like material held togetherby the textile threads or yarns T. When such a material in the form of atape is used in making the tab, with the rubber threads extendinglengthwise of the tab, it is capableY of elastic stretch with a tendencyto elastic recovery. thus providing a springy action which, whileavoiding undue strain upon the child, nevertheless Ykeeps the diaperunder proper tension and prevents it from shifting out of place. Y

Instead of the type of material illustrated in Fig. '7, in which` therubber strands extend longitudinally of the tab, material such assuggested in Fig. 8 may be employed, this material being a knittedfabric, here shown as plain knitted fabric, having alternate courses oftextile yarn T and rubber or other elasticV material N, the result beingthat this material is very stretchable in the direction of its wales.Tabs made of this material would have the knitted wales runninglongitudinally and like those made of the material shown in Fig. 7,would be inherently capable of elastic elongation and recovery. Afurther material is suggested in Fig. 9 which illustrates a plainknitted fabric in which all of the yarns are of elastically stretchablematerial such as rubber, synthetic rubber or the like; the knitted waleswould run longitudinally of the tab when made of such material. A Y

In use, the lower part of the body portion of the garment may be turnedback to expose the tabs 8 and the diaper will be attached to thedepending portions of the tabs in the usual way, by means of safety pinsor equivalent attaching devices. If' the tabs are of woven or braidedmaterial, the material is preferably open textured, thus facilitatingthe passage of the pins; If knitted material (which is readilypenetrable by a pin) be employed, it may be of double thickness, ifdesired, to provide the desired strength and resistance to tearing outof the pin during use. Since the pin does not pass through the bodyportion of the garment, the formation of pinholes in the latter isavoided and as the tab is secured to the body portion by a-seam of alength greater than the width of the tab the stresses are so distributedthat tearing of the garment at this point is avoided. On the other handthe stretchability of the tab is such as to relieve the infant fromundue and injurious strains.

While desirable constructions have herein been illustrated and describedby way of example-it is to be understood that the invention is to bebroadly inclusive of any and al1 modifications falling within the scopeof the appended claims.

I claim:

1 An infants garment designed to facilitate the pinning of a diaperthereto, said garment having armscyes and comprising, in combinationwith a body portion of knitted fabric having the Wales thereof extendingvertically of the garment, two diaper attaching tabs each arranged atthe interior of the garment, each of said tabs being located directlybelow one of the respective armscyes and so that the longitudinal axisof each tab substantially bisects the corresponding armscye, the upperend of each tab being spaced from the lowest point of the armscye adistance which does not substantially exceed one-third the distancebetween the lowest point of the armscye and the lower edge of the bodyportion of the garment, each tab being a narrow strip of material ofsuch texture as readily to admit of its puncture by a pin and which iselastically stretchable in the direction of its length, the upper endportion of each tab being anchored to the body portion of the garment bya seam whose stitches pass through the material of the body portion ofthe tab, the major part of the REFERENCES CITED The following referencesare of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 362,440 Goodman May 3, 1887471,349 Cooper Mar. 22, 1892 1,125,985 Earnshaw Jan. 26, 1915 1,495,134Redmond May 20, 1924 1,978,259 Gastrich Oct. 23, 1934 2,103,133 AdamsonDec. 21, 1937 2,511,809 Ryan Jan. 13, 1950

